


Exposure Therapy

by sinamour



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-24
Updated: 2015-04-24
Packaged: 2018-03-25 12:25:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,722
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3810340
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sinamour/pseuds/sinamour
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Exposure therapy is a technique in behavior therapy intended to treat anxiety disorders.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Exposure Therapy

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Rarepair 2015.

Chihiro isn’t recognised as one of Japan’s most renowned psychologist for nothing – obtained his professorship, contributed to both the academic andthe medical world with articles and research, earned international fame – all before the age of 28; but there’s a difference in knowing and being able to analyse a condition academically, and actually watching it being put into practice.

Particularly so when the love of your life is involved.

Chihiro may know every psychological theory that exists in the world, easily putting a name to each disorder or circumstance – Stockholm’s Syndrome, Maslow’s hierarchy of need, self-actualisation, psychosocial and psychogenic theories, the bystander effect – and they say that knowing is the first step to healing but –

But Chihiro learns belatedly that even if it’s true, identification is unable to lessen the hollow throb that echoes in his ribcage each time Tetsuya flinches away from him whenever he moves forward to press a kiss to the boy’s head –

It doesn’t quell the feeling of helplessness that grows in him as he watches Tetsuya takes the longer route to avoid the convenience store these days –

It doesn’t allay the anger that he feels whenever he sees Tetsuya carefully manoeuvre himself closer to the exit each time they catch themselves in a crowd.

Chihiro hates that his partner has become a coward –

But more than that, Chihiro hates that he is unable to help in spite of everything.

-

Post-traumatic stress disorder ( _noun_ ) medicine

A condition of persistent mental and emotional stress occurring as a result of injury or severe psychological shock, typically involving disturbance of sleep and constant vivid recall of the experience, with dulled responses to others and to the outside world. 

(Google)

-

_“You sure are excited about the trip, aren’t you?” Chihiro comments, raising an eyebrow as nonchalantly as he believes possible without seeming upset, but Tetsuya hasn’t lived with him for more than half a decade and two to become an oblivious idiot._

_“A little,” Tetsuya hides his smile behind the stack of clothes that he's got on his luggage, and slips away into their bedroom to pick up his departing gift for his husband._

_"It's just a trip to the hotspring - and with a bunch of brats too. Mark my words, that blue brat is going to give you more trouble than is worth it. It'd be more exciting if it were a different kind of trip instead. Just saying, y'know."_

_Tetsuya outright laughs at this, shaking his head and sliding behind Chihiro smoothly to put a hand on his shoulder. "Someone's passive aggressive today."_

_"Yeah well, don't count on me to be all smiles and rainbow when I won't have any dinner to come back to for the next three nights," Chihiro scowls, making an attempt to bury his face into the newspaper, except Tetsuya pushes it away patiently and pulls out two pieces of paper in offerring instead._

_"Will a promise of our own vacation suffice to mollify your irritation at two dinner-less nights?" he smiles, and smiles wider when he sees his husband try to hide his pleasure._

_"...hmph. That depends on what kind of vacation we're talking about."_

_Tetsuya knocks their forehead together, reveling in the pleased glint in Chihiro's eyes._

_"The honeymoon kind."_

_Ah. What a happy thought it had been._

-

“Chihiro,” Seijuurou begins, quiet and calm, fingers tapping against the smooth finish of his office desk as he stares across at his colleague, “it’s… perhaps not my best idea, and I wouldn’t normally suggest anything as radical as this, considering the circumstances and the source of the phobia, but…”

Chihiro blinks and looks up from his coffee to stare into Seijuurou’s impassive face. The way he leans back into his seat, however, gives him away – his exhaustion, anxiety, apprehension – and Chihiro cannot help but to wonder how many nights Seijuurou has stayed up late thinking about what he’s about to propose to Chihiro. He also feels a stab of muted jealousy because – _hey, Tetsuya isn’t yours anymore. He’s mine now. He’s your friend, but he’s mine now, so you should just leave him to me_ –

But Chihiro doesn’t say any of that because _hah, look at what a mess Tetsuya is in now. Some care I’ve been giving him, alright_.

“Chihiro!” Seijuurou’s voice is sharper this time when Chihiro snaps up, and realises that his colleague has been addressing him more than once. “Are you listening, Chihiro? Most of our other colleagues might have their qualms about this, but we all know that it’s been proven effective, to some extent. With the right precautions taken, I believe that there’s no harm in trying.”

Chihiro tries to wrap his head around Seijuurou’s words because in spite of the coffee, he’s still woozy from two sleepless nights, spent calming Tetsuya down in his fits of nightmares. It isn’t until Seijuurou grips his hand across the table, an urgent look in his eyes this time, that Chihiro begins to collect his mind to focus.

“Chihiro. Behavioral therapy has never failed us before, and have a little confidence in both yourself and Tetsuya. He can take everything that you toss at him.”

There is a span of silence where Chihiro merely looks into red eyes, and then he shifts and heaves a heavy breath that’s filled with resignation and exhaustion. “Are you talking about what I think you’re talking about?”

“Yes. Do it.”

-

Exposure therapy ( _noun phrase_ ) medicine

Exposure therapy is a technique in behavior therapy intended to treat anxiety disorders. It involves the exposure of the patient to the feared object or context without any danger, in order to overcome their anxiety. It is often used in the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and phobias.

(Wikipedia, PsychCentral)

-

_Chihiro doesn’t even hear about the entire devastation until it is over, and by the time he manages to get to the side of his husband, Tetsuya is already in the hospital, recuperating with two gashes, two broken ribs, swollen cheeks, dislocated shoulders –_

_And a ring of ugly bruises around his neck._

_The police tells him that it was the work of some drunk religious bastards, intent on showing the world “the descent of the Holy Deity”. Apparently, their idea of proving their Holy Deity’s existence is through hostage-seizing and violence, and bad luck had Tetsuya and his group of children in the way of these religious terrorists._

_Tetsuya provides the rest of the story after he wakes and has shared two hasty kisses with Chihiro, and he tells them how Daiki had been frightened and stupidly valiant in turns. The fanatics had not been gentle with neither of the teachers because of the sheer ruckus that the other children had made upon realising their danger, and Tetsuya had been threatened more than once throughout the entire ordeal. When one of them finally decided to draw a knife against one of the other children, Daiki had snapped and bitten the man in the arm._

_And Tetsuya had paid the price instead, spared from death only by a thread, but bound to the terror of fingers squeezing the air out of him with a rope._

-

“I’m home,” Chihiro declares, stepping into their home, and pauses for a moment in the foyer. The living hall is bathed in the calm of yellow lights, and there is a kind of silence and peace to the place that Chihiro cannot help but to think is deceptive. He wonders if the walls really have ears because can they hear Tetsuya’s scream and sobs in the middle of the night, when he carries the boy from one room to the other room to find rest.

_Such a dishonest space in my house._

“Ah, welcome back, Chihiro-san,” Tetsuya steps out of their room right then, lips quirked into a smile, but even from this distance, Chihiro can see the dull of fear that had crept into his husband’s eyes, and the chill of terror that had turned his back a rigid board.

“What are you doing in there?” he ignores the drop of his heart then, and steps out of his shoes to walk over to Tetsuya, pulling cold fingers into his hands.

“Cleaning, as usual,” Tetsuya teases, “Does Chihiro-san even knows how much rubbish he has left in his wake? I see that you’ve been shoving your dirty underwear under the bed again.”

“Oy, that’s your goddamn dog dragging it under the bed, not me,” Chihiro snaps back, and in an experimental move, slots himself behind Tetsuya and places his lips against the nape of his neck.

The effect is instantaneous – because Tetsuya jerks away like he’s been electrocuted, and his eyes are so wide Chihiro could see himself reflected in them.

“I – I’m sorry,” Tetsuya whispers, and turns away to flee into the laundry room after that.

-

“Do it, Chihiro,” Seijuurou coaxes, “Just make sure that you know what you know that you’re reading the right signals, and you’ll be okay.”

“…Is it as simple as that, Seijuurou?”

Seijuurou scoffs then. “Simple? Do you really think that I don’t know how much of a strain this will put on you and your relationship with Tetsuya? I’m disappointed in the little faith that you have in me, considering how much of it that I have in _you_.

But if you succeed, Chihiro, even you know how much it will benefit Tetsuya’s condition.”

“…I know. God knows I know.”

-

And that night, when Chihiro steps into his home, he swoops Tetsuya up into his arm before he even removes his shoes, and kisses him nonstop until Tetsuya is laughing and squirming and panting.

“Chihiro-san’s eager today.”

Chihiro knows that there is a strange, unreadable tilt to his head when he replies, “Yes, I am. I’ve been thinking about this all day at work.”

And indeed he has. He doesn’t lie –

“Is something the matter?” Tetsuya asks with a frown, pushing himself up on his elbows then, but falls back again when Chihiro leans down and presses another kiss against his lips.

“None, Tetsuya.” And Chihiro slips trembling fingers under cotton shirt and pants to coax moans from his husband’s lips.

But once Tetsuya’s reduced to a puddle of sensitive nerves and nothing more, unseeing, unhearing –

Chihiro wraps cold fingers around pale neck, and squeezes.

-

“I love you, Tetsuya. That’s why – you have to place all your trust in me.”

-


End file.
